help! sick gourami

[tylixxa]

i have two male fire red gouramis in my 37 gallon tank. along w/ 4 cory's, 6 platy and 6 danios. today one of my gouramis is barely swimming, it is mostly moving with the water. it seems to have problems staying upright as well, keeps laying on its side. now it is swimming crazy, upside down and into the sides of aquarium. it will fall to the bottom and lie upside down. i see no sign of physical trauma, although it seems pale. nitrates were getting high yesterday and did a 25% water change today. the other fish seem to be fine. any idea about this fish? i do believe i am going to lose it

 

[tylixxa]

let me update
it is now on the bottom on its side not moving.
im pretty sure it is dead.....

 

[Fawke]

sorry to hear about you gourami

I had one die a few days ago, we think because of internal parasites, but not all that sure. "wuvmybetta" will probably be along soon as she has spoken to many people who have had gouramis die for no obvious reason lately.

how are your other fish?

 

[batman669]

I had the exact thing happen to a dwarf flame gourami of mine about 5 days ago.

I think I had a fungus of somesort in the tank ( one of my danios was all puffy and scaley)
anyways I put an antifungus tablet in the tank, just to make sure, and the gourami seemed to improve the next day.

now the gourami is back to normal. Not sure if it was the fungus or not. Hope it helps

Good luck! keep us posted

 

[Pixie]

one of my danios was all puffy and scaley

That sounds like dropsy, better go get some good meds for it or it will kill off most of your tank. Gouramis seem to be affected by this more easily then other fish. in my experience anyway.

Dropsy- is a bacterial infection in the abdomen of the fish. The belly of the betta will look extremely bloated. Skin lesions may appear and the scales of the betta lift outward perpendicular to the normal position. The fish often rock back and forth just under they surface of the water and do not respond to a net being put underneath them. Fins clamp together and many times their eyes will swell. Treatment should begin immediately, because the betta's liver and kidneys can become damaged quickly. Any of the following commercial treatments should work: sulfonamides, sulfathiazole, tetracycline HCI, chlortetracyclin, and oxytetracyclin. NOTE: Dropsy is extremely contagious to other of all species and the tank must be thoroughly disinfected afterward.

This is a good site for fish Diseases http/www.angelfire.com/blues/fish_problems/main.html

 

[Fawke]

batman

I would say keep a close eye on your fish, our whole situation started when one of our gouramis had fungus. it was only tiny, but we removed all the gouramis and treated them for fungus. they quickly recoverd but we then found out on here that fungus is often an indication of another problem that that led to the fish having damage/low immunity. we treated them parasites but it was too late for one, overnight he was coverd in sores and more fungus......he died

watch out for flicking! it is one of the few signs of a parasite/flukes problem.